VICTORVILLE — Days after a contentious City Council meeting, Councilman Jim Kennedy explained why he left the dais, a move that was met with jeers from a defiant audience.

Kennedy described the moments leading up to his decision to leave the June 20 meeting as the “third most miserable experience I had on the Council.”

“At my age, my patience for tolerating absolutely unacceptable behavior is greatly diminished,” Kennedy told the Daily Press last week. “I don’t have it, and I don’t need to have it. There’s no reason for me to be diplomatic to those people when they acted the way they did.”

Outbursts from the pro-cannabis audience began soon after Mayor Gloria Garcia opened the public hearing on an urgency ordinance designed to regulate the “personal, medical and commercial use of marijuana.”

The ordinance was brought to the Council in response to passage of Proposition 64, the Adult Use of Marijuana Act (AUMA), which allows for cities to “completely prohibit commercial marijuana activities,” city documents show.

The caveat is that a city must amend its Municipal Code before Jan. 1, 2018, or “state law will prevail” and allow commercial marijuana businesses and uses. So the ordinance would have ensured local control “before the state begins issuing licenses for the activity,” according to city spokesperson Sue Jones.

It also would have repealed and replaced the city’s current prohibitions with “a more comprehensive ban,” which angered an audience in search of regulation and taxation of cannabis businesses some say are already operating in Victorville.

As such, Councilwoman Blanca Gomez requested the ordinance be read in its entirety to “allow people to understand what’s happening.”

City Manager Doug Robertson and City Attorney Andre de Bortnowsky believed the full text should be read only after a motion to adopt it was introduced, but Gomez insisted the ordinance be read first, which drew boisterous support from audience members who shouted their desire to hear it.

Kennedy then suggested Gomez read the 14-page document herself. Moments into the reading, as the audience applauded mention of AUMA’s passing, Kennedy stood up and walked out of the room, waving off the jeering audience with one hand as he exited.

“It was a gesture that said, ‘I’m not willing to sit here and listen,’” Kennedy said of his hand wave. “It was a very uncomfortable situation. It was basically, ‘Thanks folks. I’m leaving. I’m not going to listen to this.’ It didn’t mean more than that.”

The meeting should have been adjourned once the shouting started, according to Kennedy, who said he wouldn’t criticize Garcia for her concern for being “cavalier or, in any way, abrupt with the public.”

He was critical of Gomez, however, saying she “encouraged” the audience’s behavior.

“Our goal was to have a public meeting. Hear their thoughts,” Kennedy said. “But that was never on her agenda or on the agenda of those people in the audience. It’s a real issue ... (that) gets worse every meeting. Her objective is to not fall in line. That’s the last thing on her list of goals for the future. I think her agenda is to create chaos, and the more chaos the better.”

Gomez, meanwhile, said she doesn’t “know how (Kennedy) defines chaos,” but suggested her colleague’s departure effectively added fuel to an already growing fire.

“He made a huge statement when he walked out,” she said. “The will of the people is important to hear. When you walk out on someone, you basically say there’s no regard or respect for anyone outside your perimeter.”

She also disagreed that the audience’s behavior was “uncivil,” calling them “impassioned people that want to be heard.”

“So maybe they get a little louder. We shouldn’t be intimidated by that,” Gomez said. “Ultimately, as their representative, I’m going to (let them) voice their concerns.

“This was a particular experience where I knew Council and staff stood against the cannabis. They say, ‘We’re just trying to maintain regularity.’ How is banning personal and commercial use doing that? The majority of the Council has no interest in any of this. They don’t even want to listen to it.”

Kennedy said Gomez “talks as if people have never been represented before” her arrival on the Council in January.

“We were all elected, and we all represent everybody and have done so before she was there,” he said. “Those folks are, I’m sure, passionate about their marijuana beliefs and attitudes and that’s fine, (but) that was exactly what I needed to do in that situation. I don’t believe in trying to outshout the people I disagree with.”

The Council ultimately tabled the ordinance indefinitely per a motion by Gomez, but any chance of its approval left with Kennedy because passage required four votes, and Gomez made it clear during the meeting that she wasn’t voting for it.

But Kennedy said he doesn’t “have any strong opinions one way or another” on cannabis, saying it’s a “fact of life” that’s “been with us” for a long time. He noted he’s “not concerned” about the tabled ordinance either.

Instead, his problem is a colleague with whom he can’t find common ground, which, in turn, has left him noticeably perplexed.

“Even with the differences of opinion I had with (Angela) Valles years ago, that total lack of respect, consideration and courtesy was never a problem,” he said. "But it is now, and I don't know what to do about it. It’s a foreign kind of experience for me, and I’m not sure how to handle it, frankly. It kind of takes the fun out of the job.”

Matthew Cabe can be reached at MCabe@VVDailyPress.com or at 760-951-6254. Follow him on Twitter @DP_MatthewCabe.